Aquatic Productivity Bottles

Introduction

The Aquatic Productivity Bottles rest in a rack that provides consistent and reliable light control for quantitative aquatic productivity studies.Students fill the bottles with algae solution or pond water and then they measure the dissolved oxygen concentration in the solutions before and after incubation in fluorescent light. By comparing the dissolved oxygen concentrations in each solution, students learn about the relationship between light intensity, dissolved oxygen concentration, photosynthetic activity, and the primary productivity of aquatic ecosystems.

• The identical transparent bottles nest in each of five rack
  positions. 
• The custom design of the rack shields the bottles from light
  by blocking a fixed percentage of light in 25% increments from zero to
  100%.
• This apparatus ends the frustration and uncontrollable mess
  involved with using screens and tape or rubber bands to block light.

Typical Applications

By comparing the dissolved oxygen concentrations in each solution, students learn about the relationship between light intensity, dissolved oxygen concentration, photosynthetic activity, and the primary productivity of aquatic ecosystems.